Her friend nodded. “No more setting you up on blind dates. Got it.”
And with a quick squeeze and a promise of dinner soon, Heather left.
Kay stared after her, trying to figure out why that interaction had come off as weird. Heather’s agreement had been almost too easy, but then again, she had felt bad about the disaster of a date, so maybe that was it.
Huh. Kay shrugged mentally as she pulled out her laptop.
Weirdness aside, Heather was a woman of her word. If she promised no more blind dates, she would follow through with that.
It was only later that Kay would realize that while Heather had promised no more blind dates, what she hadn’t promised was to forgo dates altogether.
Words, man. Sometimes they came back and bit a girl on the—
Chapter Three
Garret
He’d known he’d fucked up from the moment he’d watched the beautiful blonde come his way, pretty chocolate eyes molten and all but shooting sparks.
Garret knew he’d pissed her off, but hadn’t comprehended why.
Had he broken something when he accidentally bumped into her?
He knew he probably should have stopped to help her pick up her things, to make sure she was fine, but he’d already been late and wanting to get the evening over with.
Not to mention the rant. He’d been spouting off to his best friend and former teammate, Kevin, like he’d earned a gold medal in ranting.
But then the woman had approached with fury written across her face, and so Garret had quickly hung up his call, pocketed his cell, and opened his mouth to apologize. But he hadn’t managed to get more than a syllable out before she was assaulting him with a paperback and then telling him to check out the New York Times listings.
And that was the precise moment he realized the degree to which he’d fucked up.
Because the beautiful blonde wasn’t just a stranger he’d bumped into on the street.
Nope. She was his date.
A date he hadn’t wanted, but one that had been his investor’s idea. Heather O’Keith was a legend in the business world, and when she’d found out he was single and potentially looking for that status to change, she’d all but forced one Katherine Hart on him.
What was he going to say? No?
Of course not.
He wanted RoboTech’s investment, and he was counting on Heather’s business acumen.
So he’d agreed to the date.
But inwardly, he’d groaned and moaned and bitched as if his coach had dressed him down in front of the guys. And this inner whine-fest had only grown louder when Heather told him how she’d met Katherine and that her friend was a romance novelist.
First, Garret was a realist. He didn’t have room in his life for someone who spent time fantasizing over fictional eight-packs and happy endings that rarely came to fruition.
Second, he’d pictured a woman who looked like those from the backs of his mother’s books. Bodice rippers still cluttered her nightstand and, well, this was going to make him sound like a Class-A asshole again, but the women whose pictures were on the back of those hadn’t exactly been his type. They appeared a little frumpy, slightly awkward, and old enough to be his . . . well, his mother.
Of course, what he hadn’t expected was tall, lean, and gorgeous with angelic features and lush lips that any man would dream of kissing. Even her glasses had added to her allure.
Katherine—or Kay as she’d told him she went by—definitely had the sexy librarian vibe happening.
And if there was one thing that Garret dug, it was the sexy librarian look.
Contrary to his size as an adult, he’d been little growing up. But now he was six-feet-four, two hundred and fifty pounds, and while he didn’t have that fictional eight-pack, he was in damned good shape considering his professional rugby career had ended five years earlier. Still, he’d been the shortest in his class for years and as skinny as a beanpole. The library had been his happy place, somewhere he could pretend to be strong and tall or a superhero or a Greek god.